From the Donbass industrial region (northeast) to the Crimea (south), Russia has so far annexed 5 regions in Ukraine, in whole or in part, after referendums condemned by the international community and rejected their results.

Here is some information about these areas, which Kyiv and the West describe as occupied, which constitute 19.4% of the Ukrainian territory, and the Russians have acquired 11.9% of them since the beginning of the war on February 24, according to estimates by the Institute for the Study of War.

Lugansk and Donetsk

These two regions, most of which are Russian-speaking, form the Donbass industrial basin in Ukraine.

From 2014 to 2022, a conflict between pro-Moscow separatists and Ukrainian forces continued.

In February 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin recognized the independence of the separatist regions and justified the war he launched on February 24 against Ukraine as a necessity to save the Russian-speaking peoples from genocide, he said.

Before the war, the Lugansk region had a population of about 2.1 million, and it shares three borders with Russia.

According to the Institute for the Study of War, about 99% of its territory has been under Moscow's control since the Russian offensive in the spring and early summer.


Among the four regions where referendums were recently held, Lugansk;

It is the region most under Russian control, but this happened after incurring significant military losses, according to the Institute for the Studies of War.

Since the Ukrainian counter-attack in early September, which led to the recovery of a large part of the neighboring Kharkiv region, Ukrainian forces have also regained lost territories in Lugansk.

The population of the neighboring Donetsk region, where a referendum is also being held, was 4.1 million before the outbreak of the war, and its capital of the same name is the third largest city in the country.

Before the Russian war on Ukraine, about half of the region's territory was under the control of separatists.

Today, about 58 percent of the territory is under the control of Moscow and its allies, especially the coastal city of Mariupol, where the battles continue, and the Ukrainian forces there made only a slight progress in September.

Zaporizhia

Bordered by the Black Sea, Zaporizhia has the country's largest nuclear power plant, overlooks the Dnipro River, and had a pre-war population of 1.63 million.

According to the Institute for the Study of War, 72 percent of the territory of Zaporozhye is under the authority and military administration of Moscow.

The largest city in this region bears the same name, and is controlled by Ukrainian forces, but its largest port, Berdyansk, is in the hands of the Russians.

The huge nuclear plant fell into the hands of the Russian army in March, and since that time the two parties to the conflict have accused each other of bombing its surroundings, which raised fears of causing a nuclear accident;

Calls have intensified to make the demilitarized zone, but so far to no avail.


Kherson

About 88% of the territory of Kherson, located in the far west of the area controlled by Moscow, and its capital of the same name, fell into the hands of the Russians in the first days of the war.

The region, which is of great importance to the Ukrainian agricultural sector, is considered a strategy for Moscow because it borders the Crimea, which it annexed in 2014.

Full control of Kherson, which is linked to the control of the coasts of Zaporozhye and Donetsk, would allow Russia to create a connecting strip between all the areas it controls in Ukraine, including Crimea, even the Russian territory.

Ukrainian forces are launching a counterattack on Kherson, and have announced some progress in the previous months, and damaged bridges over the Dnipro River in the vicinity of the city to cut off the supply lines of Russian forces.

In addition, attacks targeting Russian and pro-Russian officials intensified, and a number of them were killed.

Crimea

Moscow annexed Crimea in 2014 after a referendum prepared by Kyiv and the West is illegal.

The tourist and agricultural peninsula played a role in poisoning relations between Kyiv and Moscow after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.

Most of the Crimean population is Russian-speaking, and the Secretary-General of the Communist Party of the former Soviet Union Nikita Khrushchev of Ukrainian origin "granted" the peninsula in 1954 to Soviet Ukraine.

But on February 27, 2014, pro-Russian forces seized the local parliament as the hastily summoned deputies elected a pro-Moscow government.

On March 16, 2014, during a supposed referendum condemned by the international community, 97% of the population voted "in favor" of joining Russia, according to Moscow.

The annexation was ratified two days later through a treaty initialed by President Vladimir Putin.


Of the Crimean population of about two million, 59 percent are Russians, 24 percent are Ukrainians, and 12 percent are Tatars who have lived in the region since the 13th century.

By seizing the Crimea - which represents an area of ​​4.5% of Ukrainian territory - Russia also regained the large port of Sebastopol, where it has had a military fleet since the 18th century, providing it with an exit door to the Black Sea, and from there to the Mediterranean and the Middle East.

Since May 2018, the peninsula has been connected to mainland Russia by the 19-kilometer Kerch Bridge.

Russia uses Crimea as a logistical rear base, has long been out of the fighting, but has seen frequent explosions since August at military airports or ammunition depots.

Ukraine later claimed responsibility for the attacks.